1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to recreational facilities and more particularly to basketball-type facilities designed for commercial use.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Various commercial recreational facilities involving individual participation are gaining in popularity. Such facilities are often found at resort, beach and vacation areas and there appears to be a need for continuing and even expanding well-established types of commercial recreational facilities, such as in the case of miniature golf, as well as inaugurating new types of commercial recreational facilities involving individual participation as exemplified in the recently-started skateboard facilities.
The amount of land required for any type of commercial recreational facility becomes a prime consideration in view of increasing land prices. Where courts are required, it becomes desirable to minimize the amount of land required for the facility and it is known to have multiple recreational courts in a close arrangement as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,858,880 and 3,948,512. Another type of plural court arrangement for playing a basketball-type game is also shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,88,909 and 3,544,109.
In an ordinary basketball game as played on the ordinary basketball court, it can be observed that any variation in challenge to the player normally comes about by the group action. Thus, to simply offer a reproduced conventional basketball court as a recreational facility would not offer a constantly changing challenge to the individual player playing solely for enjoyment and recreation. While conventional basketball goals and backboard constructions have sometimes been modified as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,575, such modifications have been primarily arranged for some specific training purpose such as improving the ability to shoot the ball into the basket.
While other prior art practices might be mentioned, the prior art has not provided a commercial basketball-type facility designed for individual participation and in which the participant is given the opportunity to play a plurality of courts in sequence and with each court offering a different challenge and, in some cases, a reward for meeting a particularly difficult challenge.